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Knoxville’s Startup Day expands to weeklong Innov865 event this year

The crowd applauds during Startup Day 2015, an event to celebrate Knoxville's start up and entrepreneurial community at the Bijou Theater on Nov. 19. (JESSICA TEZAK/NEWS SENTINEL)(Photo: Jessica Tezak)

It was clear when more than 500 people attended Knoxville's Startup Day 2015 in November that the organizers were really onto something.

Inspired by the growing interest and momentum of the event, they have announced the rebranding of Startup Day this year as Innov865 Week, which will run from Sept. 19-23.

The week will kick off with the Kauffman Foundation's Mayor's Summit on Entrepreneurship, then feature Paul Singh and the North American Tech Tour. The signature event, Startup Day, will be on Sept. 22.

Included will be educational panels, pitch competitions, investor roundtables and social events. Activities will be geared toward startups, entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, students and the East Tennessee community.

The Startup Day hosts will now be known collectively as the Innov865 Alliance, demonstrating a commitment to year-round collaboration to develop, support and promote the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Innov865 Alliance includes the University of Tennessee Research Foundation, Oak Ridge National Lab, PYA, UT's Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Launch Tennessee, and the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center.

'PYA is a strong champion of entrepreneurship in the region,' said Tom Ballard, chief alliance officer at PYA and a member of the newly formed Innov865 Alliance. 'The firm was founded here 32 years ago as a startup and it's grown to be the ninth-largest privately held health care consultancy in the U.S.

'We understand as a company what it takes to start and grow an enterprise, and we're committed to giving back to the community that helped us grow to what we are today.'

Ballard said the organizers of Startup Day started talking of expanding the event after the successful event in November. 'We've done this for three years,' he added. 'We've built an excitement in the community. We've seen it grow.'

Having outgrown previous locations and filling the Bijou to the gills last year, the alliance was looking at how it could build on that success and how it could take the event to the next level.

The alliance decided to start by making it a multi-day event.

'Let's really celebrate entrepreneurship in a week, and tie together other events that occur throughout the year,' Ballard said. 'Innov865 Week will be a focal event once a year, and other events will also reinforce the Innov865 brand.'

There was a quick consensus around the concept and an agreement that the brand would be enhanced by a new name.

'East Tennessee has plenty to discover, celebrate and invest in when it comes to innovation, hence the name Innov865,' said Ballard. The '865' refers to the Knoxville area code.

Development was led by Jim Biggs and Johnathon Sexton of the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center.

'They took the lead to develop the brand,' Ballard said. 'It's a team effort. That's really the key, the reason we've been able to go from a fledgling event three years ago to a week. It is because of a collaboration of these organizations.

'Now the tough part begins, making sure we have the right set of events, and continue to have a focused day with Startup Day,' he said. 'We've also been fortunate in tying in with Paul Singh, who is doing a nationwide tour of the nontraditional startup communities. He will be bringing some programming and interacting with startups and entrepreneurs in the area.

Known for his venture-capital work and his own startup companies, Singh, will travel in a pickup truck pulling a custom-built Airstream trailer to mentor entrepreneurs, visit incubators and 'dive into the local (tech) culture,' Ballard said.

The Kauffman Foundation's Mayors' Summit on Entrepreneurship will bring mayors and entrepreneurship experts together to discuss ways to promote startup activity and encourage higher levels of entrepreneurship.

'We want to be supportive of activities,' Ballard said. 'But that doesn't mean that we have to own and run everything; it's really a community. I think we're building a village where everybody participates [and] celebrates, and everyone benefits.'

As for Startup Day, the organizers are still determining what the format will be.

'It will have many of the characteristics that we have done in the past,' Ballard said. 'It will probably still be a two- to three-hour event, but we will probably be able to focus more on the celebration of what is happening in the region.

'What has been most exciting from my perspective is that we have showcased a lot of what has been going on,' he said.

He mentioned the investment in General Graphene of $8.7 million by a consortium led by Knoxville-based Angel Capital Group. Graphene, is a material that is harder than a diamond and 200 times stronger than steel.

'ARiES Energy, an alternative-energy company and Startup Day alum, won the first ever Traction Award last year. And Local Motors built its first 3-D printed car, the Strati, in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ere in East Tennessee. All are indicators of a 'vibrant entrepreneur eco system.'

'We've added layer on layer to the image of the community,' Ballard said.

Read or Share this story: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/2016/04/12/knoxvilles-startup-day-expands-to-weeklong-innov865-event-this-year/90895260/